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Month: June 2015

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I’ve been busy and for those who participate in #earthathon you probably see that I continue to hammer out the miles. I do have three huge parts to my training happening right now, I just haven’t been running any races.

The first part of my training is getting a lot of miles in. Most of my miles are out on the roads, but in April I completed my first treadmill run. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of the treadmill runs, but I can’t say as I dislike them either. What I know for sure is that it’s much easier to do intervals and repeats on the treadmill. Doing intervals on the street is an art form that is difficult to master. Gaining the amount of speed that I need to acquire will be much easier with the treadmill.

The second part of my current training is related to the treadmill – it’s the gym that I joined in order to gain access to the treadmills. I’ve never joined a gym before, but I’m finding that I like going to the gym 2-3 days a week. I’ll do my few miles on the treadmill and then cool down with some weight training. Even doing 3 sets on 12-15 machines acts like a cool down after a hard set of intervals. And doing the treadmill and the weights before work makes for a good jump start on the day.

Part 3 of my training program is one that I’m still adjusting to, but so far I’m happy with the results. I now have a coach who is steering me in the direction of my goals. Her name is Nichole Porath and you can find her blog and background info here. Nichole is a 2012 Olympic trials qualifier as well as a former world record holder for the indoor marathon. After hours of discussion and dozens of emails with Nichole I decided to take her on as a coach. She has promised to work as hard for me as I work for myself so it’s time for me to get after it.

Putting all of these pieces together have me feeling confident as I get ready for a race this weekend, the ECHO half marathon. I am not advertising my specific time goal quite yet, but I’m definitely shooting for a big PR. In April I managed 126 training miles and in May I stepped that number up to 159 miles. I can already see that my marathon training (with Nichole’s guidance) will put me up around 200 miles per month, maybe over. Whatever it takes to get that BQ in November – that’s the main goal.